Tech News

5 Important Artifacts That Were Lost—And Found—In Museum Storage

“It belongs in a museum!” It’s a common refrain among archaeologists who are passionate about preserving artifacts for future generations. But anyone who’s seen the end of the 1981 documentary Raiders of the Lost Ark knows that precious relics can be easily forgotten once they make it into storage. Okay, Indy’s not real. But it…

A Murder Suspect Actually Asked Siri Where to Hide the Body (Updated: Not Quite)

Answering “I need to hide a body” used to be one of Siri’s little jokes. She used to give suggestions. She doesn’t anymore. Why? We can’t be sure, but it miiight have something to do with an accused murderer who apparently asked the question in earnest. Florida man Pedro Bravo is accused of murdering his…

F-18 fighter jet jumps into hyperspace

Cool photo of the M61A2 Vulcan nose cannon in a FA-18E Super Hornet jet fighter taken by it Lieutenant Chris Nigus, Weapons Training Officer with the Strike-Fighter Squadron VFA-27 Royal Maces, based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, in Japan. It looks like the cockpit of an A-Wing jumping into hyperspace. SPLOID is a new blog…

The New Fields Medal Winner Was Inspired By a Rubik’s Cube

The Field medal is mathematics’ answer to the Nobel Prize, and this year’s winners have just been announced. Amongst them is Manjul Bhargava, one of the youngest people to be made a full professor at Princeton University, aged 28, whose work is inspired by… the Rubik’s Cube? Odd as that may seem, in an interview…

A Multi-Year Sunny Spell on Titan Ends With Methane Clouds

During a flyby in July, Cassini recorded clouds drifting across the largest moon of Saturn, Titan. This may be the kickoff of summer storms on the massive moon, the first time researchers have observed cloud formation since 2010. A time-lapse of clouds slipping around Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute…

This New Technology Will Finally Bring Flexible Displays To Market

Flexible touch screens have been “just round the corner” for some time now. Heck, Samsung showed off a flexible screen at CES in January 2013. Sadly, it was just a prototype. The truth is that flexible displays just haven’t been durable enough for mass production. Until now. A Menlo Park-based startup named Kateeva will start…

Why Deer Freeze in Your Headlights

Less a function of fear than bewilderment; simply put, deer freeze in headlights because they can’t see. Deer Eyes vs. Human Eyes The eyes of deer and people share a number of features, but they also have a few significant differences. Pupil Unlike human pupils, which are round and when dilated do not span much…

This ad is the definition of cool

The latest Southern Comfort campaign should be included in the dictionary entry for cool. There are other commercials out there that are also very cool but they don’t depict coolness in the same way these ads do. Here is the newest commercial from the series: Check out my other Southern Comfort favorite ads here and…

How Many Different Colors Can We See?

We all know that some people see the world in a limited palette of hues due to color blindness. But what’s the largest number of colors that we can possibly see? In this video, Sci Show takes us on a whistle-stop tour of color vision, pointing out that normal folks can see about 1 million…

This Stackable Wire Chair Is Beautifully Simple

Sometimes, simplicity can make an already wonderful idea better. In this case, designer Daniel Lau has stripped the concept of the average stacking chair right back to—quite literally—its wireframe. And the result is beautiful. The Kai chair was designed and made in Britain. Its simple wire frame takes a striking chevron form, and comes powder-coated…

The Worst Hurricanes in Living Memory Across the North-East, Mapped

Imagine if you could find a 105-year-old in every town and ask them which hurricane strike they remembered being the worst throughout their entire life. Or imagine mining databases for the same information. Either way, this map is the result. Put together by Randall Munroe for today’s XKCD, this map uses HURDAT and NCEP rainfall…

Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Android Brains, iPhone-Like Body

Samsung has just announced its latest Galaxy smartphone, the Alpha. With its chamfered edges you might confuse it foran iPhone from a distance, but it’s got plenty of its own fun tricks as well. The new phone is related to, but substantially different from, the existing Galaxy S5. It’s certainly slimmer than the S5, at…

Amazon’s New Mobile Card Reader Brutally Undercuts Square And PayPal

Look who crashed Square’s payments-on-the-go party. Amazon just announced its own credit card reader and app combination called Amazon Local Register, which will enable anyone from your mom organizing a yard sale to taco trucks use a smartphone or a tablet to instantly accept credit card payments. The device only costs $10, the app is…

Trojan Horse Gold Particles Could Finally Treat Brain Tumors

Glioblastoma multiforme is a cancer that’s as deadly as it sounds. It’s the most common and aggressive brain tumor in adults that’s especially difficult to remove surgically—but we now have a technique to treat it. It’s so tricky to remove because the tumor cells invade the surrounding, healthy brain tissue. Victims typically die within a…

FBI Facial Recognition Caught a Fugitive on the Run For 14 Years

The FBI’s facial recognition initiative is big and getting bigger. And it’s just proved that it works too, by helping capture a fugitive who’s been on the run for 14 years, during testing in Asia. Neil Stammer has been evading U.S. authorities since 1999, when he was arrested for child sex abuse and kidnapping. His…

Facebook Will Now Crash 50% Less Often on iOS

I don’t know why you would use the official Facebook app on the iPhone — Paper’s fabulous — but just in case you do, you’ll be happy to know that Facebook has squashed a pretty major bug that reduces crash rates by 50%. The company’s engineering blog states that one of the app’s top crashes…

Here’s how much lighting can change the way someone’s face looks

It’s obviously not a secret that lighting has the ability to change how a person’s face looks but photographer Sebastian Petrovski wanted to show how dramatic that difference could be in his photo series Perception Is Reality. The photos, which were pointed out by Lost at E Minor, can seem to capture different people. The…

Pixels rearrange themselves and morph into different works of art

The Creators Project points to a neat little project where famous works of art are re-arranged and transformed into other famous works of art. So the Mona Lisa can become American Gothic and vice versa. It’s like seeing art become a wonderful illusion. The project was done as a sort of programming puzzle at CodeGolf.…

Remember that new Type-C reversible USB connector we told you about last year? Well, it’s finally ready for mass production. You’ll begin seeing devices with the new standard in the next few months. Yes, it will break compatibility with existing USB connectors, possibly leading to worldwide outrage — think about what happened when Apple replaced…

With A Brand New API, Uber Is About To Be Everywhere

You can request an Uber directly from the Google Maps app on your phone. Heck, you might even be able to order a car directly from Facebook Messenger. So why not other apps? It seems like you could start doing that as soon as next month. Sources tell TechCrunch that Uber plans to launch an…